Sermon Tone Analysis

A pastor was in the middle of his sermon when he noticed a man had fallen asleep with his head on his wife’s shoulder.

“Wake up your husband,” Pastor Riley snapped.

The wife smiled and replied, “You put him to sleep.

You wake him up.”

I HAVE put some of you to sleep before…even last week.

So, I commit that if I put you to sleep today…I’ll walk over and wake you up MYSELF!

I hope you are finding 1 Corinthians to be challenging and encouraging.

It’s not easy to find a good break in the passage to start and stop because this WAS written as a letter.

So, to make sure to get the context, I hope you will read 1 Corinthians over multiple times over the next few weeks.

Today we turn to 1 Corinthians 10 where Paul reminds Christians that we should have NO IDOLS in our lives.

Idolatry.

What IS that?

In short, IDOLATRY is following any other God besides Yahweh - the One True God.

And that “god” doesn’t have to be a statue that we bow down to.

Some of us look our “god” in the face every day in the mirror.

AR Bernard said it well: “Idolatry is seeking security and meaning in someone or something other than God.”

John Calvin said, “For what is idolatry if not this: to worship the gifts in place of the Giver himself?”.

(John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, 4.17.36)

Americans might not bow down to statues, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have idols - something or someone (besides God) we seek for security.

Today we are reminded that there is no room for idols for followers of Jesus.

The contemporary Corinthians Paul was writing to - like the ancient Hebrews who had been a part of the Exodus experience out of Egypt - were surrounded by idols.

So, when the One True God set the Hebrews free from Egyptian slavery, He made sure to communicate that He expected their allegiance to Him, and no other.

Exodus 20:1–4 (CSB)

Then God spoke all these words: I am the Lord [YaHWeH] your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery.

Do not have other gods besides Me.

Do not make an idol for yourself, whether in the shape of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth.

Exodus 20:5-6 (CSB) Do not bow in worship to them, and do not serve them; for I, the Lord [YaHWeH] your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing faithful love to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commands.

BTW, the focus is NOT on but on a ‘generational curse’, but on God’s generous desire to show faithful love to His people!

But if you know the rest of the story, you know that the Old Covenant Hebrew people didn’t consistently obey this command, and neither do many New Covenant Christians.

So, Paul dives back into the Old Testament history of Moses, the Exodus and the Hebrew people as warnings to contemporary Christians of his day and of ours.

PRAY

1 Corinthians 10:1–4 (CSB)

Now I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.

They all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.

For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

The presence of Yahweh in the form of a cloud led the people through the desert in the daytime and a pillar of fire at night (Ex 13:21-22).

God’s presence was obvious when he caused the waters to split and stand up like a wall as the people passed through the sea (Ex 14:21-22).

Further, God provided food EVERY DAY for forty years!

The people would wake up and find manna on the ground - as small as seeds, but tasty like wafers made with honey (Ex 16:13-16, 31, 35).

God also provided quail for them to eat.

And then there is the reference to 2 moments in the Exodus when God caused a rock to gush enough water for thousands and thousands of people to drink from (Ex 17:6, Num 20:11).

These events occurred at the beginning and end of the Exodus experience.

With those images in mind Paul writes that these people were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea but what’s THAT mean?

God used the cloud and the sea to lead them and deliver them from their enemies.

And they consumed the same spiritual food and the same spiritual drink...from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.”

Jewish traditions developed that...a well of water actually followed God’s people during their travels”.1

Understanding that God the Father, Son, and Spirit have always existed means that Christ - the Messiah - the Lord Jesus - was with the Jewish people, bringing refreshment to their bodies and souls.

1 Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 191–192.

There IS a clear correlation Paul is drawing between the Old Covenant people and the New Covenant followers of Jesus.

We have been baptized into Jesus - delivered from sin and following our Leader toward the “Promised Land”.

Further, Jesus has provided the spiritual food & drink for our lives by giving His body and blood for us, something we remember together every time we take communion together…as we will next Sunday.

It’s also intriguing to consider the imagery Jesus uses with the Samaritan woman when he says these words to her:

John 4:13–14 (NIV)

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.

Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus is our HOPE.

Jesus is our LIFE!

It’s through HIM that our thirst for something more - our thirst for purpose & eternal life - is quenched.

But then there’s the warning that Paul writes to the Corinthians and to us, that despite God’s incredible provision and protection given to our ancient spiritual ancestors, many STILL turned back to false gods - IDOLS.

And WE are in danger of doing the same thing.

1 Corinthians 10:5-7a (CSB)

Nevertheless God was not pleased with most of them, since they were struck down in the wilderness.

Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we will not desire evil things as they did.

Don’t become idolaters as some of them were;

And now Paul gives 3 examples of their idolatry.

1 Corinthians 10:7b–10 (CSB)

as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.

Let us not commit sexual immorality as some of them did, and in a single day twenty-three thousand people died.

Let us not test Christ as some of them did and were destroyed by snakes.

And don’t grumble as some of them did, and were killed by the destroyer.

Example #1: When Moses went up to the mountain and received the 10 commandments, and didn’t come back quickly, the Hebrew people asked Aaron, brother of Moses, to make gods for them to worship.

So, Aaron took their gold and made it into a golden calf, the kind of idol they likely saw every day in Egypt.

The next morning they Hebrew people mixed the worship of this golden calf idol with building an altar to Yahweh right in front of it (Ex 32:1-6).

Then, Ex 32:6 says, the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to party.

The phrase “got up to party” is also translated as “rose up to play” (NET) - a phrase Jewish rabbis interpreted as sexual play.1 * This is the same term referring to Isaac “caressing” his wife in Gen 26:8.

Ben Witherington III, Conflict and Community in Corinth: A Socio-Rhetorical Commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.

B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1995), 221–222.

Evidently, the Hebrew people - the people that God had powerfully delivered from Egyptian slavery - had some sort of sexual orgy…in the name of Yahweh!

How despicable!

This is the kind of thing that happens when people disobey God and try to remake Him into their image - a god who winks at or even encourages impurity.

Because of this idolatry, Moses called down judgment as the priestly tribe of Levites killed 3,000 men - their brothers, friends, and neighbors - with swords (Ex 32:26-28).

They might be ‘playing’, but God AIN’T playin’!

Example #2: On another occasion 23,000 people were killed by a plague from God when the men of Israel committed sexual immorality by sleeping with with Moabite women and even bowed down and worshiped their false gods (Num 25).

God had Moses kill the leaders who allowed this idolatry and immorality (probably accounting for another 1000 people, since Num 25:9 gives the total number who died as 24,000 compared to Paul’s mention of 23,000).

Example #3: In one of the many times the people became impatient and spoke against God and Moses, complaining about the food and drink God provided.

So God sent poisonous snakes to bite them and many people died (Num 21:4-6).

We are to trust Christ [Messiah], not test Christ by grumbling, complaining, and being ungrateful.

In all these examples, the Hebrew people were disobedient, impatient, and idolatrous - wanting God to be made into their image instead of them being made into His image.

1 Corinthians 10:11–12 (CSB)

These things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our instruction, on whom the ends of the ages have come.

So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

Have you ever thought that you were safe - that YOU have the strength to overcome the temptation…on your own?

Or do you think that you are somehow immune to the impact of idolatry & immorality?

Watch out!

We must learn from the examples of others who compromised.

The same God who punished them for disobedience CAN punish us as well.

So, whoever thinks he stands must be careful not to fall.

No one here is immune to temptation, nor is anyone here alone in temptation.

1 Corinthians 10:13 (CSB)

No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.